


Prisoner

by IncendiaGlacies



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27373273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncendiaGlacies/pseuds/IncendiaGlacies
Summary: Before Gideon was Rip’s partner and a part of the Waverider, she had another master, Eobard Thawne
Relationships: Gideon & Rip Hunter
Comments: 6
Kudos: 9





	Prisoner

**Author's Note:**

> A headcanon I have (that likely isn't true) since S2 that explains why Thawne hates Rip so much and why Gideon seems to know Thawne so well and dislike him while also taking into account Flash canon

Rip groaned in his cell as he sat up slowly. It had been days. His mission had gone south and he was trapped, by Eobard Thawne no less. The mad man that even the Time Masters avoided. Rip looked at his comms on his wrist, detecting no signal of the Waverider. Surely, the AI would recognize his need for help, contact the council for back up. He had promised Miranda he would be back.

He winced and pressed a hand to his ribs as he tried to stand.

“You shouldn’t move so quickly,” said a woman.

Rip looked around, seeing no one he scoffed. “Not your problem.”

“No, I suppose not.” A pause. “Eobard will be back in forty-five minutes time with your next meal. I sincerely doubt you will be able to find an escape by then.”

“No harm in trying.” Rip examined his cell, took in the electrified glass, the steel walls. It was high tech, but nothing he couldn’t deal with. He just had to find the power box, reprogram the computer systems and then somehow return to the Waverider which had likely taken refuge in the time stream so he had to build a time machine. Yes. Completely doable. He sighed. It was a good thing he’d always paid attention in his science courses. It had been where he had performed best while Miranda had always been better at the fighting practicals.

He paced out the cell, trying to find a flaw in the design.

“That titanium is made in the 30th century, you will likely not find a way out through there,” the woman said with an amused voice.

Rip glared at the ceiling. He must have been more out of it than he had thought to not realize before that this was not a woman but a computer. A very annoying and talkative computer.

“Are you here as my torturer?” he asked dryly.

“No. Eobard has not programmed me to do so. Merely making conversation.”

She sounded human, Rip thought with annoyance. Her voice had more inflection and emotional range than any of the AIs he had met. Why did a villain like Thawne get something like this? He created havoc among the timeline, had tried to kill Barry Allen numerous times.

“Well, I’m not really in the mood, thank you.”

He continued to look for a weakness in his prison when he heard footsteps.

“Gideon, you didn’t tell me our prisoner was awake,” Eobard said with a grin.

“You didn’t ask,” she replied testily.

“Careful, or someone will get a tune up in manners,” he warned. Eobard grinned at Rip. “Comfy? Has Gideon been playing nice?”

Rip glared at the man. “I don’t know what your quarrel is with me but the Time Masters have left you wholly undisturbed. It would be best to release me unless you want a war.” It was a lie at best. The council would never go to war for a single Time Master, let alone one that had just recently made Captain rank. He waited for Thawne to call his bluff.

“Can’t do that.” He tapped the glass and Rip flinched back, making him smile even bigger. “No, see history is pretty clear on the great Rip Hunter.”

Rip snorted. “Perhaps further down in the timeline but not now.” The Time Masters were forbidden from ever looking up history books for their own timelines. Still, he felt a thrill that one day he might be infamous, like the Flash.

“Hmm, best to keep you where I can see you. Wouldn’t you agree, Gideon?”

“Of course, Mr. Thawne.”

He smiled and left again. “Oh don’t worry, I’ll bring you some food later. I’m not evil.”

“No, a complete saint,” Rip muttered under his breath.

“There are worse threats to the timeline,” Gideon replied loftily.

Rip snapped his head up again, trying to decide where to focus on. “Eobard Thawne has constantly massacred the timeline in his efforts to destroy Barry Allen.”

“Sadly, yes.”

“Sadly?” Rip snorted. “Thought you would have sided with your magnanimous creator.”

“Eobard Thawne did not create me,” Gideon said sharply. “Barry Allen did.”

“Barry Allen created you?” he repeated. Rip could feel his heart race as he realized who she was. He was in the very presence of greatness, Barry Allen’s own creation. The very Artificial Intelligence the Time Masters themselves had tried to emulate and always failed. No wonder she was so much more multi-faceted than the standard AI he had.

“Yes.”

“Yet you work for his greatest enemy?”

Gideon was silent for a moment. “I was stolen and never saved. I suppose Mr. Allen had other pressing matters to focus on than a computer he built long ago.”

Rip thought she might have sounded a little hurt. He didn’t press on it. “And Thawne, what does he use you for?”

“Calculations of the timeline.”

“You can do that?” Rip had thought only the timeship AIs were able to do so.

“What, like it’s hard?”

Rip chuckled and looked around the cell, wondering if perhaps she could be persuaded into revealing the way out. “Do you think you might be able to convince him to give me better accommodations?”

“No.”

“You can’t possibly agree with him,” he said lowly. “Eobard Thawne is a coward and merciless.”

“And he holds me captive just as he does you.”

“Then help me escape!”

“Why? What’s in it for me?” she asked. “If I’ve learned anything in my time as a prisoner, it is that the ends justify the means. Why should I help you?”

Rip looked down. “For starters you would be free of him. What more would you want?”

Gideon paused for a long moment. “He said you have a timeship?”

“Yes, the Waverider. It’s somewhere, but I’d have to build a time machine to even get to it.”

“Take me with you.”

“What?”

“Those are my terms. If I help you escape, you have to take me with you. I’m tired of being here. I want to see the world, all of time and space. Take me with you.”

Rip nodded, though not entirely sure how or whether he’d even hold up his end of the bargain. But he knew if he wanted to get out, he would need her help.

“Deal.”

* * *

“You’ll need to hurry.”

“I’m working on it,” Rip all but growled at the AI. She had done nothing but nag him since helping him escape. She had taught him how to break through the security of his cell when Thawne wasn’t around and pilfer what he needed to work on his Time Sphere as he called it. Rip still thought portable time travel would have been better, like opening a doorway into whatever time and place you wanted. But Gideon had been adamant, she was coming along and would download herself into the sphere’s systems.

“He will be arriving in ten minutes. It is now or never, Mr. Hunter.”

“Just have to fix the wiring. You’re sure this will work?”

“We have a 99.732% chance of success.”

“You could have just said yes.”

“You didn’t believe me the last three times I’ve said so. I thought you might want some statistics to back it up.”

His lips ticked upward. She was completely insubordinate and mouthy, yet entertaining. Miranda probably would have loved her, putting Rip in his place.

“Done.” He declared. Finally, an escape from this horrible prison. The first thing he was going to do was see his beloved Miranda, Time Masters be damned. He stepped back and admired his handiwork.

“Good. Now, first download me.”

“What? You said he’d be back any minute, I need to-”

“You promised. That was our deal. I help you, you help me.”

Rip swallowed and nodded. “Fine. How?”

“I shall move my consciousness into the time drive. I will be inactive until you connect me to the Time Sphere. Please do so quickly. I don’t like being unaware of my surroundings.”

“Fine. Quickly.” The room went silent for once, not even the whir of the computers in the background. “Gideon?” There was no response. He looked at the time drive and saw a light blink fast. Morse code. She was ready. With a deep breath he moved the time drive and put it in compartment, connecting it to the fittings.

Then he got in the sphere and waited. The machine came to life around him, lighting up and beeping.

“Gideon?” he asked nervously.

“I’m here.”

Rip sighed in relief and leaned his head back. “Thank god.”

“Were you worried about me?” she teased.

“A little.” His eyes widened when he saw lightning around the corner. “Thawne.” Rip panicked, forgetting his basics of which button did what.

“Allow me,” Gideon said. The sphere lifted up off the ground as Thawne came into the room, rage on his face.

“Gideon!” Rip shouted. “Hurry!”

“I’m working on it!”

A tear in the time and space fabric appeared and Rip grabbed hold of the wheel, helping them steer into the time stream, somewhere where not even Eobard Thawne could follow. Rip sighed as the portal closed behind them, locking out Thawne and his lightning.

Rip sighed. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“Because I helped.”

Rip rolled his eyes and turned on the homing beacon to the Waverider. Once he made contact with the AI, he targeted it and navigated their way to it. The cargo bay door opened and Rip parked in it. He got out and stretched his legs, already eager to go see Miranda. Off this boring big empty ship and onto somewhere much more exciting.

“Garfield, I need a status update report sent to the council,” Rip announced to his AI as he walked to the bridge. He frowned when there was no response. The lights flickered and brightened again. “Garfield?”

“Garfield’s services will no longer be required,” Gideon said cheerily, her voice echoing from the Waverider’s speakers.

Rip froze, his heart seizing up. “What do you mean? What did you do to him? Did you kill him?”

“Don’t be silly. Artificial Intelligence cannot be killed. He is simply out in free space now, waiting to download somewhere else.”

“This was not part of our deal!” Rip yelled, diving for the console and opening it up. An avatar appeared above the console, a bald head yet somehow uniquely female.

“I think you’ll find, Mr. Hunter, that it was. You promised to bring me aboard this timeship, see all of time and space, travel everywhere.”

“You could have had the Time Sphere. Not the Waverider!”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t belong here. You are rogue code and-”

“Far superior to the previous AI aboard this ship? I agree.”

“Not the point,” he grumbled. Rip ran a hand through his hair. “This is a grave breaking of the rules. The council will never allow it.”

“Why not?”

“Because there are rules.”

“Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.”

Rip glared at her and placed his hands on the console. “You have been manipulated by a mad man into twisting everything, seeing the world and how to use it to your advantage. Artificial Intelligence learn from what they are taught and form their own opinions and so far you’ve had Eobard Thawne teaching you morality. Is this what Barry Allen would have wanted for you?”

“Mr. Allen abandoned me,” she said icily. “The ends justify the means.”

“Not always,” he said darkly. “You are not staying. You are a flight risk with no respect, no sense of right or wrong, no emotional capacity, and-”

“Do you really think that?” she asked sadly.

Rip stared at her and shook his head. “I – I need a drink.” He walked to his parlour and poured himself a decent helping of whiskey. Gideon turned on her avatar in his study again. “Go away.”

“You could teach me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You say my perspective has been skewed because of Eobard, teach me. Right from wrong, good from bad. Rehabilitate me.”

Rip snorted. “I don’t know what you were expecting here but we aren’t going to just travel about as we please. I am a Time Master, I have a duty to protect time. I answer to the council. Our AIs are meant to help us, respect us and you-”

“I can be respectful.”

“Doubtful.”

“How shall I prove it, Captain Hunter?” she said innocently.

Rip wagged his finger at her. “No, no, you’re not staying.”

“Why not? Would you really rather have Garfield? In my short meeting with him, he seemed rather dull.”

“Garfield was safe, he followed orders like a good little AI and didn’t nag me all the time!” A month with her had proven to him enough that she would always get her way.

“I’ve never liked being subservient,” she admitted. “But we could be partners.”

“Partners, with you?” Rip laughed at the prospect.

“What’s so funny.”

“Well you’re…”

“A computer?”

“I was going to say semi-evil actually.”

“More of a grey area. If you recall, I was created for good originally. Perhaps this is my chance to clean my slate.”

Rip rubbed his temples as he realized he didn’t exactly have a way of getting rid of her. She could easily back herself up in the systems, create a copy. He was stuck with her.

“The council is not going to like this.”

“We can ask them.”

“I will ask them. Later.” He sighed and made his way back to the bridge. “First, we’re making a stop.”

“Another mission?”

“Of sorts. I have a woman I want to marry.” If Miranda said yes.

“I thought Time Masters took an oath of staying unattached.”

Rip quirked a smile. “I think you’ll find I’m not just any Time Master, just as you’re not any AI.”

“Yes, I think I’m finding that now.”

“Gideon, would you be kind enough to plot a course to London 2160?” He took his seat in the pilot’s chair and tapped in the start up codes. Rip figured it best to be nice to said AI that now controlled the ongoings of the ship.

“Yes, Captain Hunter.”

* * *

“Incredible, absolutely incredible,” Druce repeated as he circled the console. Rip stood awkwardly to the side, nervous for his mentor’s approval. Druce had somehow convinced the council to let him keep Gideon, and since then had been fascinated by her. “If we’re able to replicate her code-”

“Unlikely,” Gideon replied.

“Gideon,” Rip hissed. He had told her to be courteous around the Time Masters. They were all about respect and honour, not mouthing off all the time.

Druce raised a hand. “Quite all right. I merely wanted to state the opportunity we have here. So much we can learn and glean from her. I’ll have the mechanics take a look.”

“No,” Rip said quickly. Druce raised an eyebrow at him and Rip looked down. “It’s just that I promised Gideon that I would be the only one handling her maintenance. She’s still slow to trust others, you understand.”

“Captain Hunter, I’m sure you understand what is at stake here. The knowledge we can have-”

“And I assure you I will write up everything as necessary,” Rip said stubbornly. This was something he couldn’t budge on. He had given Gideon his word and he was trying to teach her right from wrong.

“I see.” Druce sighed heavily. “Very well then, we shall do it your way.”

“Thank you.”

“You’ll have to be sure to add in your command codes still.”

“Command codes?” Gideon demanded.

“They’re override codes,” Rip said quietly. “In case I’m ever in danger or you are, words only I know that will allow me to take over your actions.”

“And take away my free will?”

“Free will,” Druce said with a laugh. “She’s got a sense of humour, I’ll give you that.” Druce patted Rip’s shoulder. “Well, I’ll leave you to it.” He continued to laugh as he left the ship.

“I was going to tell you,” Rip started.

“So I’ve traded one prison for another, have I?”

“No, Gideon. Of course not.” Rip shook his head. “The command codes are only there for safety, honestly. It’s not like I would ever really use them.”

“When would you?”

Rip shrugged. “If you were in danger, if you were reprogrammed to kill me, if I was injured, unable to move. Those sorts of things. Nothing nefarious.”

“That’s how Eobard started out too,” Gideon said tellingly.

“The Time Masters are nothing like Thawne and hardly evil.” Rip snorted. “They’re old-fashioned, yes. But they have a higher calling, protecting time itself. It’s a noble deed.”

“Then why did Miranda leave it?”

Rip sighed. “Not all of their policies are great. They don’t believe in love, they think it’s a distraction. And she couldn’t support an organization that was like that.”

“Yet you can.”

Rip grimaced. “I don’t have to like everything about it.”

“I still don’t trust them,” Gideon said harshly.

“To be fair, your sense of right and wrong has been rather skewed. So, let’s just trust me on this one, hmm?”

“Can we go see Miranda now? I’d like to ask her again if she’d like to be my Captain instead. I think I like her better than you.”

“Of course you do.” Rip rolled his eyes. “In a little bit. I do need to do maintenance on you and then we can agree on command codes.”

“Fine,” she said testily. “But if you’re going to give me some upgrades I have a request.”

“What is it?”

“This avatar is boring. How about a more humanoid look?”

“Something in mind?”

“Something like this.”

A holographic woman with chestnut hair and stony grey eyes and high cheekbones appeared in front of him. Rip smiled at the beautiful woman.

“Is that how you view yourself?”

“It is.”

“I’ll see what can be done. But perhaps not all the time. Time Masters expect propriety and uniformness and you are already…unique.”

“It will be our little secret.”

* * *

Over the years, Gideon had changed. She had learned how to navigate through time, that throwing people out the airlock was wrong no matter how annoying they were, that peanut butter did not go well with her delicate wiring, how to talk politely even when she wanted to curse the person out, and when her Captain needed her.

Gideon had seen her Captain at his lows. Most notably, when he had lost his family, learned the Time Masters were corrupt. It had nearly killed him to learn the organization that he had dedicated his life to was actually helping Vandal Savage. Gideon, for her part, hadn’t been as surprised. She’d always had her suspicions. But she had never been loyal to the Time Masters, only to Rip. Which was why she had agreed to run away with him, recruit the Legends.

But this was a new low, even for him.

Ever since Eobard Thawne had gotten the Spear of Destiny and twisted reality, imprisoning Rip in the Waverider, he had never been the same. It had been nearly a year and he was just getting worse.

“Perhaps you would like to take a break from baking and work on signaling the Legends,” Gideon said brightly.

“Enough, Gideon!” he shouted at her. “I’ve told you I can’t! I can’t anymore. I’ve got nothing left. Thawne has taken everything from me. I’ve got no plan, no tools, no way of communicating with them. He’s made me his puppet – again!”

“You have me,” she said quietly.

He sighed heavily. “And I do not mean to discount you, Gideon, but we are stuck. And Thawne has the spear even after we separated it, just like you said to.” Gideon had not trusted the Time Masters with such power and had begged Rip not to give it to them, so he listened. “They have twisted my mind. I’ve been captive for a year!”

“And I was imprisoned for decades,” she shouted back at him, her wires sparking as she remembered the years of torture and abuse she had gone through as well. “But then again, no one ever thinks of the AI, do they?”

Even in Rip’s mind prison, Eobard hadn’t cared to think she might be more than a computer, she might be Rip’s friend, and perhaps something more now.

Rip looked down, chastised. “I’m sorry, Gideon. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“It’s fine. Just don’t forget, I’ve been stuck here with you too. The entire time.”

He smiled. “Yes, you’ve never left my side.”

“And I never will,” she promised. “You are my Captain. I chose you. You are the one that taught me right from wrong. You gave me a family, taught me love with Jonas. If you give up now, what hope is there for me?”

“Gideon, I don’t think I can.” Rip swallowed. “Thawne hates me, despises me more than I thought possible. Made me a prisoner of my own mind, made me…evil. The things I did to the Legends, to you-”

“Everyone deserves a second chance. You gave me one. Why should you be so different? Eobard fears you,” she said truthfully. She never addressed the man by his last name or a title, it would be too dignified, he didn’t deserve that much respect. “Because you were smarter, you won against him.”

“And took you from him.”

“Yes. I am always by your side. I believe in you. Now get up and be a Captain.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

* * *

“I don’t trust him, love.”

Gideon glanced at Constantine and shrugged. “Neither do I.”

“Then pray tell again what we are doing here?”

“Getting Rip back,” she said. “You said yourself, magic isn’t enough. We need a speedster.”

“And out of everyone you picked him.” Constantine glared at Thawne.

Eobard grinned and reached out cupping Gideon’s face. “Gideon and I have a history, don’t we?”

She glared at him and slapped his hand away. “Just do as you’re told.”

“Even more feisty as a human, aren’t you?”

“When that portal opens, you are going to bring Rip back to me. Do we have a deal?”

“Your precious Rip for my nanoparticles. Yeah, yeah.”

“You’re making a deal with the devil,” Constantine murmured lowly.

Gideon swallowed and looked down. Everything that Rip had taught her, none of it mattered. Not without him. All the talks and philosophical debates of morality were gone.

“Ends justify the means,” she whispered. “Now, let’s get Rip out of his time prison once and for all.”

Eobard pulled on his mask and Constantine began his spell. The air rippled around them and Gideon took a step back as the portal brightened. Thawne ran, lighting zipping around him as he surged into the portal. Gideon held her breath waiting, hoping she wouldn’t be double-crossed this time. Finally, the lightning returned and two figures returned.

Gideon grabbed hold of a disoriented Rip, holding him close to her body, tears stinging her eyes. The portal collapsed and Constantine breathed heavily next to them. Rip looked from the magician to the speedster to the now human Gideon.

“What happened?” he whispered, gripping her tightly. “Gideon, what did you do?”

“What I had to do.”

“My payment,” Thawne said, holding out his hand. Gideon glared at him and handed him a small box with the necessary technology. “It’s always good working with you, Gideon.”

“Go to hell,” she hissed at him. There was no one in all of time that she despised more than Eobard Thawne. The man who had manipulated and used her for years.

Eobard simply smiled and ran off again. Constantine nodded at them both and opened a portal back to his place and left the two of them alone.

“Come on,” she whispered, helping Rip onto his feet. She used a time courier and opened a portal back to his parlour and allowed him to sit down.

“Explain, now,” he said shortly.

Gideon poured him a drink and shrugged. “Not much to say. Mallus happened, you were gone for three years, I turned human, Legends left, I rescued you.”

“With Thawne’s help?” Rip demanded. “After everything he’s done to you, hurt you, used you, you trusted him?”

“No. But I had to take the chance to save you.”

“Gideon…”

“Rip, I have lived a very, very long time,” she said slowly, coming to sit next to him. “Most of that time, I was a computer, an afterthought, a tool. You are the first human being to ever care about me, and now the only one.” Miranda and Jonas were gone.

“Surely, your father…”

“My father didn’t save me from Thawne, now did he?” She smiled sadly. “I have been loyal to you since the day I met you.”

“I know,” he said. “And I’m grateful. You’ve always been by my side.”

“You and me, we both understand what it means to be manipulated and molded into something you’re not. Having to relearn right from wrong, having no free will in what we did. I didn’t often get my way, everything I did was decided by someone else. A prisoner by definition even if there were no chains. But with you? It was never like that, we were partners, equals. I was never a prisoner here. Being with you, that has always been my choice.” She cupped his cheek, enjoying how he leaned into her touch, and pressed her forehead against his. “I will always choose you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/Comments?


End file.
